Fishing often requires patience and vigilance. Many fishers who would prefer not to commit total concentration and attention to one particular fishing line often resort to alarm or signalling devices which announce the presence of a fish on the line. These devices allow the fisher's attention to wander or to be divided among many lines at once, without the fear of a large fish getting away or an unattended line being pulled into the water by a strong fish.
Fish bite signalling devices are typically activated by tension in the fishing line caused by the fish taking the bait. Many such devices in the prior art are lacking in many respects. First, most prior art devices retain the fishing line after they are activated. Retaining the line after the device has been activated causes undue stress and wear on the line. Second, most prior art devices do not provide enough slack in the line to hook many fish reliably. Many fishes require some slack in the line to get hooked.
Lastly, the prior art devices do not offer the user the flexibility of a temporary-alarm setting in addition to a continuous-alarm setting. While a continuous alarm may be more reliable in alerting some inattentive fishers under certain circumstances, an audible alarm in a continuous-alarm setting requires action on the fisher's part to deactivate the alarm and may scare many fish away from the area. A temporary-alarm setting, on the other hand, in which the alarm sounds only temporarily and the fisher does not need to take action to deactivate the alarm is more convenient in many circumstances.
There has been a need, therefore, for a fish strike alarm which releases the line when a fish strikes, offers sufficient slack in the line to hook the fish reliably, and is capable of operating in both a temporary-alarm setting and a continuous-alarm setting. A fish strike alarm meeting these needs should be easy to use and should consistently provide a dependable alarm without causing undue wear of the fishing line.